Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Lockdown has its positive side. Accidents fell sharply by 70 percent during the month of April. This affectively means that hundreds of lives were saved due to less accidents. This was revealed by a report released on June 1 by the State Crime Records Bureau.

During the lockdown period, seven persons per day on an average died while 22 were injured. In normal course, the number of fatalities and injuries would be much more, the officials said.

Lockdown was strictly in place between March 22 and April 30 for restricting spread of coronavirus. During that period, only medical emergency vehicles and vehicles used to provide essential services were allowed to ply. Therefore, the movement was heavily restricted.

Still, 199 accidents happened during April and 211 lost their lives. As many as 885 were injured in 667 minor accidents. Before the lockdown period during January to March, an average of 23 persons died every day. In January 3,780 accidents were recorded in the state followed in 3,660 in February and 3,028 in March, the report said.

Significantly, most of the accidents happened on other roads and not on highways. This perhaps happened as people used cross roads to avoid the police. During April, 191 accidents claimed 48 lives on national highways. In state highways, 194 accidents happened, accounting for 67 lives. In other roads, 481 accidents happened in which 96 died.

The statistics show that on other than lockdown days, highways rank as most dangerous as far as number of accidental deaths are concerned.